No:   L7/016                                                                           25 January 2007.

MP marks Holocaust Memorial Day (27th January 2007)

On and around Saturday 27th January, schools, local communities and faith groups from across the UK will join together to mark Holocaust Memorial Day. Thousands of events are being held across the country to commemorate all those who suffered at the hands of the Nazis during the Holocaust. Holocaust Memorial Day also provides the opportunity to reflect on more recent genocides such as Rwanda and Kosovo, and the lessons relating to prejudice which still need to be learnt today.

27 January marks the anniversary of the liberation in 1945 of Auschwitz-Birkenau, the infamous concentration and extermination camp. It is the seventh year that the anniversary has been officially commemorated in the UK. In 2005, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the day passing the Holocaust Memorial Day resolution.

Stafford’s Labourl MP signed a Book of Commitment in the House of Commons, making a pledge to ensure that the victims of the Holocaust, and of all genocide, are never forgotten, and that the causes and consequences of the Holocaust are understood by future generations.

David Kidney MP said:

“Holocaust Memorial Day provides a focus for each of us to learn from the lessons of the Holocaust. We must not only reflect on the horrors of the Holocaust and remember all the victims killed and persecuted by the Nazis but also to challenge all types of prejudice and discrimination which continue in our society today”.